I have been running showcase events and programs for the past 25 years. The reason college coaches don’t RSVP early to most showcases is because many potential student– athletes will just send emails to all the schools on the list. The players will not do any research. Then the college coaches are receiving hundreds of emails from player that don’t truly have an interest in their school and have done no research! Let’s do the numbers If there were 50 teams at a showcase tournament and 4 players on those teams just email all the coaches then that is 200 emails. Keep in mind most college softball programs are understaffed and coaches are under paid!
The best way to approach showcase tournaments, is for the player to have their list of school that they desire to attend, which they have done their homework on, and email all of those coaches even if not on the RSVP list.
